Brescia, fraud on European pasture funds: seizure of assets worth 170 thousand euros

Brescia, fraud on European pasture funds: seizure of assets worth 170 thousand euros.

In an investigation into fraud relating to EU agricultural subsidies for pasture use, coordinated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) of Venice, yesterday the Forest Carabinieri of the Brescia Group carried out a preventive seizure measure for an amount of 171 thousand euros.

The provision was issued on May 16th by the Judge for Preliminary Investigations of the Court of Trento, against a company based in Trentino and four natural persons, "for the European contributions whose undue receipt for the years 2020 and 2021 is contested".

The investigation arises from a control activity carried out by the Breno Forestry Carabinieri in the summer of 2020, as part of the so-called “grazing scams”, “through a system involving false contracts certifying the availability of plots of land, to defraud the EU of subsidies for the use of pastures”.

Two companies are under investigation: a cooperative based in L'Aquila and another company based in Trentino-Alto Adige. Its administrators would have drawn up and presented false contracts claiming to have management rights on land in the municipalities of Saviore dell'Adamello (Brescia) and Valdaone (Trento) to obtain the subsidies provided for by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, in under the direct payments scheme and the rural development support programme.

The Judge of the Court of Trento also ordered the preventive seizure of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) securities held by the Trentino company, for an estimated value of approximately 55 thousand euros.